The present invention relates to a novel process for treating copper ore to recover the copper therefrom.
In hydrometallurgical process for extracting metal, such as copper, from ore containing the same, it is desirous to extract as much metal as possible from a broad granulometric fraction of the ore. The most frequently employed conventional process, leaching for instance, consumes too much time due to the fact that the flow of leaching solution is too slow, and thus uneconomical. Moreover, the conventional process wastes a significant amount of energy and requires expensive and sophisticated equipment.
Leaching techniques are well known for extracting common metals. Commonly used leaching techniques include 1) in situ leaching, 2) dump leaching, 3) pile leaching, 4) pan leaching, and 5) agitation leaching.
In in situ leaching, a leaching solution is injected to the ore that has been fragmented by explosives in the mine itself. The leaching solution percolates by gravity from the surface to the bottom, which is recovered for conventional treatment to extract the desired metals. Although this process appears to be economical in that it does not require transferring of the material extracted from the mine or additional stages of comminution, it is extraordinarily slow and the recovery range is low due to the relatively coarse grain size of the treated material. Depending upon the nature of the ore and the type of operation used, this process can only recover in the range of 50 to 60% for an incredibly long leaching period of 5 to 25 years.
Dump leaching is normally applied to low-grade sources which have previously been deposited at specific places, in particular for those types of assays (stint assays) which are not suitable for normal in-plant processing. For instance, dumps formed of spalls generated in normal processing as for example in the case of ores from Chuquicamata, where low-grade sulfides and spalls from leaching are generated in the respective pans of oxidized ores, may be leached by this technique. As in the case of in situ leaching, this process is extraordinarily slow, and depending upon the grain size, the nature of the material and the type of operation, it is possible to recover the desired mineral up to 60% for a leaching period of 1 to 30 years.
Pile leaching is frequently used because of its low investment costs. This type of leaching is very similar to in situ and dump leaching processes. In pile leaching, however, the source material must first be crushed to a grain size that is normally less than one inch. It is also possible to recover more than 60% of the metal by this process for a leaching period of several weeks to several months, depending upon the characteristics of the ore and the procedure used.
Pan leaching is a very old technology which has been in use in Chuquicamata since 1915. In this process, the source material having the grain size of over 3/8 inch ranging from 20 to 30% of the material is leached for a period of 5 to 10 days to recover 60 to 80% of the metal, depending upon the nature of the ore treated. This leaching process may be carried out in a flooded bed or by spraying the leaching solution.
Agitation leaching is also a very old technology that requires fine grinding of the ore. The large surface area of the ore exposed to the solvent makes it possible to obtain a leaching period that ranges from only 2 to 24 hours, with a maximum recovery of close to 90%, depending upon the characteristics of the ore. Although this technique is the most efficient in terms of rapid recovery, it consumes too much energy and requires the greatest initial investment.
As may be generally noted, with the exception of agitated leaching, the conventional leaching processes exhibit a very slow kinetic flow of solution and consequently require very prolonged periods for recovery of the metals, so that this is further reflected in a high inventory of copper in the process.
Agitated leaching, apart from requiring fine grinding, in some cases demands a very prolonged leaching period, which results in a significant consumption of energy. In addition, for the recovery of dissolved copper in particular, it requires stages of alternate countercurrent washing and decantation, normally carried out in extremely large thickeners. Lastly, the washed pulps must be deposited in tailing tanks, which involves very high investments and significant losses of the aqueous resource contained in the discarded pulp.
Leaching by percolation following curing is disclosed in Chilean Patent No. 30,851 granted to Codelco-Chile. This patent discloses a process of inhibiting a solution of silica in the leaching of silicated copper ores by adding water to the ore at the rate of 3 to 10% by weight and another stage of addition of pure industrial H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 at rates of 7 to 50 kg H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 /MT of ore. The product is then subjected to a holding period of up to 48 hours prior to leaching by percolation in pans. The object of this process is to render the silica insoluble. There is no disclosure in this patent of repulping, classification, filtration of the fine fraction from the pulp and secondary leaching in piles of the classified coarse fraction.
In the process disclosed in Chilean Patent No. 32,025, granted to Sociedad Minera Pudahuel, an ore which has been sufficiently preagglomerated in H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 and water is leached in thin layers. This patent emphasizes the importance of obtaining a consistent agglomerated product to avoid attrition of the weight of the leaching solution. In comparison, the present invention does not require agglomerating the fine material, but rather obtains a homogeneous wetting of the initial ore. Also, the present invention does not require leaching of the agglomerated product in piles of thin layers, but rather includes the processes of repulping, classification, filtration of the fine fraction and secondary leaching of the coarse fraction.
A variety of existing published sources, in agitation leaching of tailings used in Nchanga plant in Zambia, disclose processes which include the stages of repulping of tailings, thickening, agitated acid leaching, thickening and filtration. However, unlike the present invention, they do not disclose stages of preliminary wetting of the material with H.sub.2 SO.sub.4 and water, nor do they disclose curing or holding periods. Moreover, they do not disclose stages of classification or secondary leaching in piles of preclassified coarse fractions.